Attic red-shaped helicoidal crater vase

Attic red-shaped helicoidal crater of the “painter of Pronomos”:

Dionysus and Ariadne among the actors of a satirical drama.

A source of inspiration for Athenian potters of the second half of the 5th and early 4th century BC was the theatre, which, starting in Athens, had become extremely popular throughout the Greek world. Among the vases of the Classical period whose decoration is inspired by the world of the theatre, of particular interest is a large helicoidal crater of c. 400 BC, now in the Archaeological Museum of Naples (fig. 249), found, like the Talos crater, at Ruvo in Apulia. On the main face of the crater is a multi-faceted representation in two zones, depicting the actors in a satirical drama: the actors, the musicians, the author and the eleven members of the chorus. Several of the figures are accompanied by inscriptions.

Circa  410-400 B.C

Neapolis, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.